De-Lovely, De-Lightful: Edmonton students set sail in musical production with familiar tunes

Victoria School is about to launch its version of the Broadway show 'Anything Goes.'

Students from Edmonton’s Victoria School of the Arts will be taking to the high seas in a new production of the madcap musical comedy Anything Goes, featuring several of Cole Porter’s most iconic songs.

“One of things I love about Anything Goes is that people who know nothing about musical theatre will know these songs,” says show director Natalie Witte.

“The song Anything Goes, I remember being a milk commercial. And another song, You’re the Top, was a ketchup commercial. Then, when I got into musical theatre, I went wait… these songs actually had a life before they became marketing ploys.

• Sign up for breaking news alerts from CTV News Edmonton, right at your fingertips

“So I think that lots of people will know I Get A Kick Out Of You (and) De-Lovely, these kinds of great songs that maybe we just didn’t realize where they came from,” adds Witte.

“There’s this whole idea of satire in it, and making fun of this celebrity culture in the U.S.,” says Victoria School Grade 12 student Augustus Williams, who plays Billy Crocker in the show.

“It’s interesting to me that something that was a thing in the ‘30’s when this show was written is still so relevant today. Billy and a couple other characters (pose) as criminals, and when they pose as criminals they get celebrated for it. Parties are thrown in their honour. The media and the people glorify criminals, and people who shouldn’t necessarily be treated that way.”

Anything Goes first opened on Broadway in 1934, and was made into two feature films in 1936 and 1956. It has been revived multiple times since, with different rewrites and changes. The Victoria School production uses the 2022 revival version as its basis.

There are 44 students acting on stage, 13 students in the crew and a band of seven working to bring the show to life. Auditions started in September, with rehearsals starting at the end of the month. Alberta teachers’ job action interrupted the rehearsal period, but they resumed during evenings and weekends in October.

“It’s just something that I love getting to do with the people that I love,” says Williams. “I’ve made some of the best friends that I know out of the theatre.”

“The kids have put in, I would say by the end of it, about 150 to 200 hours preparing for the show,” says Witte. “They give up a lot of their time, and their families give up a lot of their time driving them to and from the rehearsals. But it seems to pay off in the end.”

“It’s not always easy to figure out that tetris board of scheduling,” adds Williams. “But it doesn’t feel like a sacrifice because it’s so worth it.”

While the show is a fizzy comedy, the director and star say its underlying message is one that resonates.

“One of the things the kids have talked about a lot is that they love the message of following your heart,” says Witte.

“Billy is a bit of a playboy at the beginning of the show,” says Williams. “He’s in a predicament because he’s fallen in love, which is not something that he’s used to. He discovers that this woman that he’s in love with is going on this cruise across the Atlantic, so he stows away to try to win her over. Many mishaps ensue, it doesn’t quite go the way he planned, but as with any farce, it all works out in the end.”

“Society puts a lot of expectations on us, about what we think people should do, and what the right thing to do is,” says Witte.

“Ultimately, if you follow your heart and you follow your gut… that will take you to where you are meant to be.”

Anything Goes runs from Dec.10 to 13. Tickets are available on Victoria School for the Arts’ website.

“I’ve spoken to many people who have come to see our shows, who have said that it seems like a professional-level production,” says Williams. “So if there’s anyone out there who’s wavering on whether or not to buy tickets, it’s absolutely worth the money.”

“I hope we just bring some joy to people, because it’s really funny,” says Witte. “It’s really, I think, quite entertaining and delightful.”

“I love being able to tell stories,” says Williams. “I think that it’s so important to humans to be able to share storytelling.

“Sometimes, if the world outside is hard to deal with, it’s nice to be able to just go into a theatre and laugh for two hours. I get a lot of joy knowing that I can bring that kind of relief to people.”